Post-Earthquake Schooling Options

Post-Earthquake Schooling Options

• Some schools in both Islands can accommodate those extra students who can shift to another city.

• The Ministry of Education (MoE) will not consider any Christchurch students to be truant for the time being. All truancy operations are frozen.

• The MoE, some commercial curriculum providers and the Internet all provide massive amounts of educational resources and activities free of charge.

• If you are unable to find a suitable school, you are presently free to do schooling at home with no fear of truancy proceedings.

Many families just want to stick together, be close to one another and support each other at this time. And the MoE agrees. So keep your children at home, read to them heaps and play board games and reconnect as a family together.

Options for parents are varied if they choose to keep their children at home:

1. The Ministry of Education have put up special pages on their website just for you: http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/Schools/SchoolOperations/CanterburyEarthquake/Parents/SupportingYourChildsLearning.aspx

2. There is a huge amount of free educational resources and activities on the web site of the Home Education Foundation: http://hef.org.nz/2011/free-stuff-on-the-web-for-home-schooling/

3. There are many other helpful websites for those wanting to teach their children at home: http://hef.org.nz/2011/helpful-websites-for-those-wanting-to-teach-their-children-at-home/

4. CurrClick.com have organised with a number of curriculum suppliers to supply curriculum to home schoolers affected by the earthquake. Please contact Darnia at: reardons@vodafone.co.nz or ph. (03) 329-4667. Darnia, too, has been affected by the earthquake, so please be patient.

5. “LightHome” would like to donate free home school e-books to any New Zealand home schooling families who have lost their home and/or belongings in the earthquake. If you are one of those, please send us a message on Facebook and explain your situation. Or send us an e-mail to: LightHomepublications@gmail.com.

So just begin teaching your children at home and enjoy yourselves! If you decide later that you would like to continue home schooling once all the schools are open again, then you will need to file an Exemption Application with the MoE for each child. There are many folks who will help you with that. Normally children have to be attending a school while the MoE processes your Exemption Application, but we are talking with the MoE to see if all those affected by the earthquake can continue home schooling while they apply for their exemption. We will let you know more about this later.

A workshop about schooling at home is planned for Christchurch on April 7, to discuss more about the option and to help with filling out the Exemption Applications. For more about the workshop or any aspect of home schooling, contact Craig and Barbara Smith of the Home Education Foundation, ph. (06) 357-4399, barbara@hef.org.nz (email us your phone number and we will ring you back as soon as possible) or www.hef.org.nz.

The Canterbury Home Educators details are: CHEInc@free.net.nz or www.che.org.nz. Please remember that many of them are still dealing with issues from this earthquake. So please be patient if you don’t hear from them straight away. If you want voice contact with someone, please contact Craig or Barbara with your initial questions.

ENDS

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